When Science Went International

Conferences are so ubiquitous these days that it’s hard to imagine academic life without them, but 150 years ago this was not the case. On Sept. 3, 1860, the first-ever international scientific conference took place in Karlsruhe, Germany. Besides being an academic landmark, the meeting was essential for clarifying several major conundrums that were stymieing chemistry at the time, enabling the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and the German chemist Lothar Meyer, who were both in . . .